BA Telemetry and Temperature

[Messyshaw]

I was long gone from ops and into the safety of fire safety before BA telemetry was introduced. I have seen a smart BA board in action and get a flavour for what it does, but am uncertain of its capabilities.

• So does it measure the ambient temperature around the BA wearer ?
• And if yes, where is the measuring device in relation to the wearer (head or waist level)?
• Does it sound any warnings if the ambient temperature rises beyond a certain level? and if so, are the audible warnings sounded at the BA board or with the BA wearer?

[Jet]

If you're referring to the Draeger Merlin board which is the most common example (and used in London) then it does not measure temperature at all. All it does is relay information back to ECO about individuals air consumption and receives alerts for when distress signal units have been activated (whether manual or automatic). It can also be used to send evacuation commands to individual wearers, or even every wearer on that board with one press if necessary.

[Keith]

Just to add a bit of further information to Jet's post, the Draeger system originally had a temperature feature, which was slightly misleading or misunderstood.

An earlier model of the Bodyguard unit on the BA set, (a combined pressure gauge, automatic & manual DSU and transmitter unit between the set and the board), had a temperature sensor. This sensor actually measured the temperature of the unit, not the ambient temperature or the temperature of the wearer. The current Bodyguard doesn't have this sensor so the temperature display on the board is effectively redundant. Don't know if there are any plans to replace the sensor in the future or if an update to the board's software will remove the display.

[LFB92]

We are getting new BA sets soon so I wonder if they will re introduce the temperature feature.

Im not to sure what the point of it is though, we all know fire is hot.